


Mistakes

by OrangeBulldog



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeBulldog/pseuds/OrangeBulldog
Summary: “Don’t regret your mistakes, Hecate. Learn from them.”Hecate takes these words to heart and goes to Pentangle's Academy to fix one of her worst mistakes.
Relationships: Hardbroom/Pentangle (Worst Witch)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	Mistakes

“Don’t regret your mistakes, Hecate. Learn from them.”

Hecate’s heart pounded at the reminder of how very bad she was at learning from her mistakes. Ada meant Indigo, of course. But she had made so very many mistakes. First, of course, had been Indigo. Turning her into a witch was a horrific mistake, certainly one of the worst. She had always considered her forays into the non-magical world, where she had met Indigo, to have been mistakes as well. Though these days, she wasn’t so sure. She hadn’t many friends at the time. Pippa had always been kind, and they had been close, but she’d known that the rest of Pippa’s friends had found her odd. Indigo’s friendship had meant the world to her, and she wasn’t sure she counted that as a mistake anymore. 

Then of course, there were the mistakes with Pippa. After Indigo, Pippa had been the only one she had left. She had tried to push her away, in her grief and punishing herself, but the bubbly girl had never listened. Somehow she had cared for Hecate just as she had Joy. But in the back of her mind, Hecate couldn’t forget that she was tied to Cackle’s forever. She never told Pippa. Still had not, in fact. It had all come to a head the night she realized Pippa was in love with her. The night before their broomstick display. The blonde witch had kissed her, and although at first she had kissed back, she pulled away. She had known for some time that she was in love with Pippa, but she hadn’t realized it was mutual. They were nearly ready to graduate, and she just couldn’t let Pippa stay with her, but she realized in that minute that of course Pippa would. But she would never forgive herself if she let Pippa throw away her talent, her big dreams, for her. So she had told her that it couldn’t happen, and stood her up for the display. She’d steadfastly ignored her until graduation, ignored the letters that kept coming, though more infrequently, until they finally stopped. Pippa had done great things, as she had predicted, even started her own school. But now that they had reconnected, she saw a sadness, a loneliness behind the pink façade that she was reasonably sure was her fault. Pippa had never found anyone either, not long-term. 

Hecate couldn’t stop thinking about mistakes, about regret. She had essentially fixed her mistake with Indigo – the girl had gotten to grow up with her mother, she didn’t remember the horrible things Hecate did to her. But Pippa…she hadn’t fixed that, not really. She doubted she could ever fully fix it, but perhaps she could, as Ada put it, “learn from her mistakes.”

She had Saturday off from her duties. Normally this meant she holed up in her rooms, trying to ensure that she didn’t hear about any trouble the girls were getting into, so that she didn’t have to deal with it herself. But today, she had made up her mind. She put on her best dress, did her hair and makeup carefully, and with a flick of her wrist, she was standing outside Pentangle’s Academy. The distance would have been too far for most witches, but Hecate had always been gifted at transference, and although she hadn’t attempted anything nearly that long in years for obvious reasons, she was confident in her abilities. She had never been to Pentangle’s, of course, and though she’d seen pictures, it was different being here. She looked up at the grand castle. It was of course far newer than Cackle’s. She sniffed at the more modern architecture, though she did think it fit the school and Pippa perfectly. She was very proud, honestly, of everything her friend had accomplished. 

She expected that there were likely charms to prevent unwanted transfers directly into the school, and she paused, not having considered what to do once here. But she didn’t have to wait long, because suddenly the object of her trip was standing in front of her.

“Hecate? Is everything quite all right?” She asked with concern.

Of course – she’d never been here before, despite Pippa inviting her many times, she would think something was horribly wrong.

“Everything is fine. I apologize if I caused concern. I merely…well I had the day off, and I have never been to Pentangle’s. I should have mirrored, I am sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Pippa smiled and put her hand on Hecate’s forearm. “Of course, no need to apologize. I am happy to see you. I was in the middle of a meeting, but I have nothing planned after. Would you like to explore the grounds, and I’ll find you when I’m finished?”

“That would be acceptable.” Hecate nodded. Pippa flicked her hand to open the gates. 

“Now then, the kitchen gardens are that way, the sports fields are there, though I daresay you won’t be interested in those.” She teased Hecate with a twinkle in her eye. “And over there are the flower gardens and where we grow plants for potions, so I imagine that’s where you might begin. I shouldn’t be long, darling.” With a flick, she was gone. 

Hecate did of course head off to the potions supply area. She wondered what sort of things one needed for “modern” potions. 

She was still there about twenty minutes later when Pippa came walking back to her. 

“I hope you’re not finding too much fault with our gardens.”

Hecate looked up from her inspection of a thyme plant. 

“Actually, I must say I’m quite impressed.”

Pippa grinned. “Potions are still quite important here at Pentangle’s, you know. My potions mistress may not be the absolute best, but she is quite talented.”

Hecate’s eyes met her slightly inquisitively. Pippa rolled hers a bit. “Yes, I mean that you are the best, you goose. You know you are, and I know it too.”

Pippa could feel the tension radiating off Hecate’s body. She said everything was fine, but she was clearly nervous about something. 

“Would you like to see the inside of the castle? Or perhaps go for a walk in the woods? We could talk.” 

She hesitated, not wanting to scare off her skittish friend. “I can tell we need to talk about something, Hiccup.”

Hecate let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “We do. The woods would be…the woods will be good, yes.” 

They walked in comfortable silence for a bit, well away from the castle, and any other people. Hecate remembered she was the one who needed to start this. She stopped walking and turned to her companion.

“I need to…tell you some things. They are going to be hard for you to hear, I think. You will likely be angry at me. I only ask that you…listen.”

Pippa’s eyes went a little wide. Was Hecate finally going to explain what had happened? She had never quite believed the excuse about thinking she belonged with the popular girls. She had let it go, because she could tell the other woman wasn’t ready to tell her. Maybe she was now.

“This is the first time I’ve left the Cackle’s grounds since we were teenagers. And not by choice. ” She began. She told her the whole story, about Indigo, about the confinement. How Indigo had been sent back in time and was now their age, with no memory of her but a daughter with magical powers. 

“And Ada only just released it? Couldn’t she have done so years ago?”

Hecate shrugged slightly. “I…I didn’t want her to. As long as Indigo was stuck there, I felt I should be too. I was going to leave, to resign. But I decided to stay, now because I choose to, not because I have to.”

Pippa couldn’t stand it any longer. She reached out and took Hecate’s hand in hers. The taller witch looked down at their joined hands, and made no move to remove hers.

“Recently I have been reminded that I…need to learn from my mistakes. To make different choices.”

They just looked at each other for a long moment, the weight of thirty years between them.

“That’s why I really pushed you away, Pipsqueak. Once I knew you…cared for me, I knew you would choose me over the world, and as much as I desperately wanted you to, I couldn’t let you do that. So I made you angry with me, I pushed you away.” She looked back towards the castle with tears in her eyes. “And I’m not even sure, today, that it was the wrong choice at the time. Look what you’ve done, for your students, for the witching world.”

“I could have done that with you.” Pippa murmured.

Hecate shook her head. “Not stuck at Cackle’s you couldn’t.”

Pippa honestly knew she was right. “But you’re not confined to Cackle’s any longer.” She pointed out.

Hecate shook her head again.

Pippa stepped closer to her. 

“If I’m reading this wrong, just say something.” She breathed, looking up at Hecate. 

Hecate was a bold witch in most aspects of her life, but emotions were one place this was certainly not true. However, for once, she trusted her instincts here. She dipped her head, closed the distance, and captured Pippa’s lips. First gentle, then insistent, as Pippa stepped closer and their bodies met. Finally Pippa pulled back, but kept herself pressed against Hecate’s body.

“All these years, I thought you pushed me away because you didn’t love me. But you pushed me away because you did.”

Hecate pulled her closer.

“That must have been so hard for you.” She looked up. Hecate’s eyes were full of tears. Of course Pippa would understand, would care that it was also very hard on Hecate.

They spent a little longer in the woods, just being together, before heading back, hand-in-hand. When they reached the castle, Hecate started to pull her hand away. Pippa clasped it tighter.

“I’m proud to be yours. I will let go if you are not ready, but don’t let go on my account.”

She didn’t.

She almost did when, walking through the halls of the castle, Pippa showing the entire thing to her, they passed their first student. Pippa didn’t, though, and the students didn’t seem to notice. Lesbian relationships were reasonably common in the magical world, but not everyone accepted them. Hecate was sure her parents would have been horrified. She had never come out to them.

The only person who reacted, if only slightly, was the deputy headmistress.

“I don’t believe you’ve met Hecate, have you? Hecate, this is Hypernia Honeycomb, my deputy, and our spell science teacher. Hypernia, Hecate Hardbroom.” 

Hecate raised her free hand to her forehead. “Well met, Miss Honeycomb. I have read some of your papers.”

“Well met, Miss Hardbroom. As I yours.” Her eyes flickered down to the entwined hands, then she met Pippa’s eyes. “If you’re staying for dinner, perhaps we’ll get a chance to talk there. Enjoy your tour.”

Pippa groaned slightly. “I am going to get teased so much about this.”

“I would have let go.”

“Oh, I know. It’s a good thing. She knows I fancy witches, and she worked out very quickly how I felt about you. Apparently I smile whenever I say your name.” She blushed.

“I think Ada might suspect.” Hecate admitted. “I haven’t told her that I, er, that I am gay, not in so many words, but I do think perhaps I am also unable to hide my feelings about you.”

“We’re quite a pair.” Pippa laughed. 

A few minutes later, they came to the end of the tour. “And here we are at my apartment.” She opened the door, and Hecate saw a sitting room that was surprisingly less pink than expected. As if reading her mind, Pippa grinned.

“No, it’s not pink from wall to wall. The bedroom is a little more pink, I will admit.” Both of them colored at the mention of her bedroom. Pippa shut the door, and ushered Hecate over to a (mostly cream but possibly with a hint of pink) sofa. She dropped Hecate’s hand and fiddled with her hands in her lap.

“Listen, Hecate, about..well about bedrooms. I should tell you…oh why is this hard to say?”

Hecate waited, unsure of what she could possibly be going to say.

“It’s not that it matters, not really, but I thought you should know, well especially since you pushed me away so I would live my life…”

Oh. “Pippa, I don’t care who else you slept with.”

She blushed again. “That’s just it, I…I haven’t. Slept with anyone, that is.”

Hecate’s eyes widened a bit. “But you had…the world.” She said weakly.

“I know. I was so angry with you, at first, I thought maybe I had been wrong. I tried dating wizards for a few years. But we never got far, I was simply not interested. I finally gave that up. But by then I was teaching, and you know how it is, some people are rather unaccepting. And the reality is, looking the way I look, the way I dress…well everyone assumes I am straight. Even though I’ve turned down every wizard who asks in the past twenty years, witches apparently don’t think to ask. And I didn’t ask any of them. Only a few people know. I only told Hypernia shortly before we reconnected.”

“But you just said…you don’t care who knows. You stayed hidden, stayed single all these years, and now suddenly you don’t care who knows?”

“I wasn’t going to come out for some random first date, no. You are not a random first date, Hiccup. I rather think this is going to be serious.” She paused. “I suppose I’d say I rather think it already is.”

“I have loved you since I was 15.” Hecate admitted. She very briefly thought that was horribly too fast, but Pippa’s eyes lit up and she leaned in and kissed her gently.

“And I you.” She leaned in and snuggled into Hecate’s side.

“I suppose it is less of a surprise, but I have also not ever had a lover.” She said quietly. 

“Although every hormone in my body disagrees with this idea, perhaps we should take it a bit slow.” Pippa proposed. “Relish it. Explore it.”

Hecate turned her head and kissed Pippa’s hair. “I would be happy to relish every minute with you.”

So that night, although Hecate did sleep in Pippa’s bed, all they did was sleep. Well, they might have kissed, for quite a while, as well. But they remained clothed. Still, Hecate woke up the next morning with Pippa’s arm flung across her stomach. Her heart swelled. When she’d come here yesterday, certainly part of her had hoped that Pippa still felt the same way, but she’d hardly expected it. She almost couldn’t believe her luck. She didn’t deserve the blonde goddess in bed with her. She shook away those ideas. Those had been the ideas that led her to push Pippa away the first time, and she was determined to learn from her mistakes this time.


End file.
